“Will I be a teacher after I graduate?” Employment anxiety, self-compassion, and life satisfaction among pre-service teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relations between employment anxiety, self-compassion and life satisfaction among preservice teachers. The sample of the study consists of 376 Turkish forth-year preservice teachers from a state university, who were selected by stratified purposeful sampling method. The data were collected via the The self-compassion scale-short form, the employment anxiety scale, and the satisfaction with life scale. Positive, moderate and significant relationships were found between preservice teachers ’ self-compassion and life satisfaction, and negative, moderate and significant relationships were observed between self-compassion and employment anxiety. Path analysis results revealed that self-compassion negatively predicted employment anxiety and positively predicted life satisfaction. It has been determined that employment anxiety has a partial mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction. In addition, self-compassion had a stronger effect on life satisfaction than employment anxiety.

Keywords

• Employment anxiety
• self-compassion
• life satisfaction

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